Seroprevalence of transfusion-transmitted infections (TTIs) in blood donors: a study from central India

Abstract

Background: Transmission of infectious diseases such as HIV, hepatitis, syphilis, and others through donated blood needs a serious monitoring to provide safe blood for transfusion, which forms an integral part of medical and surgical therapy. Objective: To access the seroprevalence of transfusion-transmitted infections (TTIs) in Malwa region and assess the level of blood safety. Material and Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted for the duration of 12 months. The known seropositive donors for any of these infections (HIV, HBV, HCV, syphilis, and malaria) and hemoglobin less than 12.5 g% were excluded. All donor samples were screened for HIV, HBsAg, and anti-HCV by ELISA methods; syphilis and malaria screening was done by card test. Result: Among the total 4,007 donors, 92% were replacement donors while 8% were voluntary donors. Female donors comprised only 1.62%; the remaining 98.38% were male donors. The donor population was mostly in the young age group of 18-30 years (69.1%). Totally, 2.05% (n = 83) blood bags were seropositive for TTI. HBV was the most common TTI (1.77% bags); HIV was the second most common TTI (0.14% bags); HCV was detected in 0.099% bags, whereas syphilis was the least common TTI (0.04% bags). Conclusion: Two to 3% of healthy donors are seropositive for TTI and reveal potential of transmitting them through transfusion. Thus, strict and proper donor selection criteria and screening with higher-generation ELISA kits can help to identify and avoid transfusion of infectious blood products.

Prevalence of Transfusion Transmitted Infections among Blood Donors at a Tertiary care Teaching Hospital in Southern Rajasthan

“…Out of 2015 donations, males contributed to a larger percentage (96.5%) compared to females (3.5%), which is in concordance with the data given by a similar other study. [3] Syphilis (1.2%) was the most common TTI in the present study, which is in contrast to the data of other studies [1][2][3][4][5][10][11][12][13] where HBV was the most common TTI, and where as in the study by Kaur H et al [14] HCV was most the common TTI. None of the donor in our study was positive for HCV, but all other studies noted HCV prevalence of which Kaur H et al [14] had reported the highest HCV prevalence (1.79%).…”

“…[1] In the present study, out of total donors, replacement donors constituted 68.7% and voluntary donors constituted 31.3%. Similar predominance of replacement donors was noted in other studies [3][4][5][6][7][8] while on the contrary, Sunderan S et al [1] , Bhattacharya P et al [9] , Shah N et al [10] noted predominance of voluntary donors in their studies. Out of 2015 donations, males contributed to a larger percentage (96.5%) compared to females (3.5%), which is in concordance with the data given by a similar other study.…”

“…[3] Despite the pre-donation counseling and medical fitness test, the presence of TTIs is inevitable in blood donation since a person can transmit infection during its asymptomatic phase (window period), transfusion can contribute to an ever widening pool of infection in the population. [1] In the present study, out of total donors, replacement donors constituted 68.7% and voluntary donors constituted 31.3%.…”

“…Poor health infrastructure, lack of health awareness in people, and failure to implement strict norms of screening result is increasing prevalence and incidence of the infections in the population. [3] Thus the present study was carried out with an aim to assess the trend and seroprevalence of TTIs among blood donors at the blood bank attached to Pacific Medical College and Hospital, Udaipur, Rajasthan.…”

Comparative study of Voluntary and Replacement blood donors from Blood Bank, Chamba (H.P)

“…5 Various studies reported from different parts of India show that many blood banks still rely on Replacement type of donors to maintain adequate stock. 6,7,8,9 This points towards the fact, that in India, national blood policy is not uniformly implemented, since blood donation services are mainly hospital based and highly decentralized. We conducted this study, to find the prevalence of voluntary donors and replacement donors in our blood bank, to compare voluntary -replacement donors year wise and gender wise, and also to study the pattern of both, voluntary and replacement donors over the period of time.…”